Many types of office equipment, such as inserters and folders, have systems which feed sheets in a single sheet feeder format. In this arrangement, a sheet is singulated and fed from a stack of sheets and transported toward the process. A gap is provided and a subsequent sheet is singulated and passed on to the transport. The time to feed a single sheet is replicated with each sheet being fed. The time to feed three sheets is approximately three times the time to feed a single sheet. Accordingly, the throughput of the system goes down as each additional sheet is made part of any collations of sheets to be processed.
In systems of the above type, efforts are made to ensure that the feeder does not double-feed or multiple-feed various sheets of paper. This will cause the system to be stopped. This is often termed stream feeding and involves multiple feeding of sheets as a single pack.
It has been recognized that systems can be provided where multiple sheets are processed at a single time. For example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/968,522 filed Oct. 19, 2004, in the names of Douglas B. Quine and Christopher A. Baker and entitled System And Method For Grouping Mail Pieces In A Sorter, assigned to Pitney Bowes Inc., disclose a method and system for processing of media items which includes a separator system feeding a series of media items onto a transport system. The separator system is controlled to feed onto the transport system groups of sequential media items having similar destination information and to separate and feed onto the transport system sequential media items having dissimilar destination information spaced apart on said transport system from the group of media items having similar destination information. The separator system may be controlled to limit the thickness of each group of media items not to exceed a predetermined thickness. The separator system may also be controlled to separate and feed onto the transport system any subsequent media items which would cause said group of media items to exceed the predetermined thickness.